


Recovery and Reconstruction 10 -- Puzzles, Plans, and Preparations

by Viola_Laterra



Series: Recovery and Reconstruction [10]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Canon Continuation, Constitutional Monarchy, F/M, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 12:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18410834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viola_Laterra/pseuds/Viola_Laterra
Summary: Link and Zelda continue their tour of Sheikah shrines in the Hebra region, and take some time to speculate about the rest of the continent to the northwest.  Zelda gets some inspiration about how to resolve some of her remaining dilemmas about becoming Queen.





	Recovery and Reconstruction 10 -- Puzzles, Plans, and Preparations

Link was dreaming. He heard a voice: "...open your eyes..." Darkness... the darkness of sleep, he thought? Or maybe some more profound torpor, that was now ending... 

"Wake up, Link." It was Zelda's voice, he realized. He sighed, and opened his eyes to the dim light that filtered into the cave by Maka Rah shrine. For just a moment, he was disoriented in that way he felt when he recalled lost memories, but then Zelda poked him in the chest.

"Link! Wake up, I want to get a start on that shrine." He came fully awake now, remembering where he was, who he was with, and what had happened yesterday. He looked over to Zelda; she was still dressed for sleep, but her sleeping shift was thin and he could see the shape of her body under it; she was laying next to him, propped up on an elbow, one hand on his chest. Apparently he'd not really managed to get much clothing on after their activities last night -- he barely remembered getting the blankets arranged so as to keep warm enough.

But he did remember that she had asked him to be her Consort, to officially bind himself to her, though of course he already was, really, by more than words or thoughts or shared history. And he remembered all the details of their intimacy last night. He disregarded her request about the shrine (which was glowing silently in the background) and reached up, pulled her down to him, and kissed her deeply.

That lasted for a few minutes, in which he was struck by the delightful reality that for much of the time, he could now have the pleasure of waking to the real Zelda -- not only the ghost of her echo in his mind, as he'd woken to in the Shrine of Resurrection, more than a year ago. She was here, she was real, and she wanted him. That knowledge was nearly as delicious as the physical sensations were.

Zelda responded to him enthusiastically, but eventually the kiss wound down and they stopped. She leaned back from him a little, cheeks pink from the excitement, and perhaps the cold, too, because the fire had mostly burned out overnight.

She asked, a little more tentatively than before, "Could we... try the shrine now?" He laughed and told her they could. She smiled and said, "Excellent. I feel *exceedingly* well rested. Ready for a challenge." Link, remembering the details of this shrine, thought that she would need that alertness, because there were a few spots that required a fair amount of dexterity.

They got up and broke camp, packing away the supplies and putting on their now-dry snow clothes. They entered the shrine, and Zelda's readiness for a challenge was put to the test. He managed to help her dodge spiked balls, relying heavily on the Sheikah slate's Stasis effect. He thought to himself that these types of tasks had been a lot easier when he only had to get himself through them.

As they emerged back into the cave, Zelda looked considerably less fresh than she had going in. He put a hand on her arm and asked how she was doing.

She smiled and took a deep breath. "None the worse for wear, I think! That was... definitely a challenge. It makes me appreciate how hard you must have worked to get through all of them." He nodded and smiled back.

They took some more of the warming elixir and found their way back through the water, and out into the updraft (which served to help dry them, somewhat). Link thought they'd probably dry the rest of the way as they walked, and was glad to see that the morning was fairly clear so the warmth of the sun would help quite a bit. It was after all what usually worked for him when he was running around the countryside on his own. From the spot outside the Maka Rah shrine, it took them some time to find their way up to the west Hebra summit -- climbing, resting, finding ways around steep spots. They crested the ridge and climbed down into the snowfield to the west, and began to work their way north.

This was Zelda's first time seeing the edge of the other side of the continent. Link thought it always seemed tantalizingly close from here, and Zelda was understandably fascinated with it. As they made their way to the northernmost point of Hyrule's western edge, she said to him, "You know, I've often thought that we should know what's over there."

Link nodded. He told her he'd made some attempts to fly across from the highest Hebra peak, but even with Revali's ability to generate his own powerful updraft, he'd never gotten far enough to even see whether there were animals or people on the other side; he'd always had to turn back in order to have the stamina to climb back up the cliff face on their side. It wouldn't have done for him to get stranded at the bottom of the gorge, which was nearly impossible to see into anyway. He imagined that it had a bottom; but it was so far away that it almost didn't matter. Either you could get across the gap, or you shouldn't try.

As they neared the Hia Miu shrine on the very corner of their part of the continent, she said to him, "Well, perhaps that can be a goal, someday. We should send someone over there. Oh, how I'd love to see it with my own eyes..." she didn't finish the thought, but Link speculated that even now, no one would allow the Queen to go on an exploratory mission to what was essentially a different country. That thought seemed to echo the yearning in Zelda's eyes... he guessed she was thinking the same thing. 

But she went on, "Now, which shrine is this?" He looked back from the yawning gorge and the hillslopes just barely visible on the other side, and told her it was called Hia Miu. He hesitated, and then said that it contained a guardian who would administer a major test of strength. He wasn't actually sure he could keep her safe in the shrine when facing one of these; he thought perhaps if she stayed near the entrance she might fare all right, but he wasn't certain. And he didn't relish the idea of fighting a guardian Scout of that level, if he didn't need to, anymore. The little first-level Scouts in Maka Rah hadn't triggered that feeling for him.

Link looked over at Zelda and saw a look of fear in her eyes. The last time she had directly faced down guardians of any magnitude in battle had been the army of Stalkers at Fort Hateno, a hundred years ago. The trauma of it was written all over her face. He admitted to himself that maybe he would not have wanted to enter these Test of Strength shrines if he had remembered that battle at the time; though he would have had no choice but to endure the trials necessary to be able to face the Calamity. He said gently that they didn't need to go into every shrine in Hebra.

She looked over at him and he saw the fear shift to something more rational. She said carefully, "Yes, I think I've had my fill of aggressive Guardians. Now that Ganon's malice is gone, all the remaining Guardians have been quite well-behaved. But even if these are instructed to help you by fighting you... I think I could do well enough without that experience. Especially watching you do it." He realized she was remembering the moment when her power woke, a last desperate attempt to save him, a century ago. Though it had been a crucial event, there was no need to push on that trauma any more than necessary. He nodded, and they continued around to the east. Zelda breathed a slight sigh of relief as the shrine slipped out of sight around a corner; he didn't let on that he had noticed her reaction.

They continued their hike all the way around the North Summit, arriving at To Quomo shrine. He'd chosen for them to visit this shrine because it lay under the bones of another leviathan. Zelda revived quite a bit at this sight, and immediately set about taking measurements. Link gladly assisted her, though his dexterity was less in the snow clothes than it had been in the Gerudo clothing when they'd done this in the desert.

"Oh, Link!" she cried, looking in her notes and at the other pictures in the Sheikah slate. "It's not *quite* the same, of course, as the one in the desert... the kind of little differences you would expect from different creatures of the same species... but *very* similar... even the positioning of the bones in the way the animal must have died..." He laughed at her evident joy.

That stopped her for a moment. She put her hands on her hips, looking at him a little crossly. "Are you making fun of me?" He shrugged innocently, and she marched up to him and poked him, hard. "You know it's not wise to get off on the wrong foot with the Queen-to-be..." she said. He was fairly certain she was teasing him, but she hadn't used this tone of voice with him since she was trying to get him to stop following her, back before the Calamity. Maybe she felt freer to joke around with him because of the new developments in their relationship.

At any rate, he played along, putting his arms around her and telling her he was just happy that she was enjoying the sights of Hebra and finding interesting things to study. He apologized for any mistaken impression she had that he was making fun of her. He leaned over and kissed her neck and said that when she was done with the measurements, it would be time to make camp anyway, and he would be happy to make restitution for any hurt feelings, in whatever way she desired. He let the full potential of that statement rest in the way he said it, lips just brushing her ear in a way that he knew drove her wild.

Zelda flushed and said, "W-well, if *that's* the case... then you are, of course forgiven. Or, you will be..." and rapidly the scientific survey degenerated into another idyll like the previous night. Zelda didn't get back to her measurements until the next morning before they left again to finish their tour of the mountains. Link alternated breaking camp and helping her with the measurements of the skeleton.

They visited three more shrines on their way back down to the Snowfield Stable: Shada Naw, in a little cave near the East Summit; Rok Uwog, under a strange rock roof held up by natural stone pillars (Zelda commented on the potential geology or ancient technology that could have led to such a formation); and finally, late in the afternoon, Sha Gehma in the North Tabantha Snowfield.

As they had continued through the shrines over the last few days, Link had been increasingly handing Zelda the Sheikah slate and letting her use it to manipulate the puzzles herself, especially when the danger of injury was low. In Rin Oyaa, just after they'd left the stable on the first day, he hadn't even bothered to run the whole puzzle, just showed her the sketch of how it went. He'd decided the puzzle was too time-consuming to execute and he wanted to make sure they would get far enough up into the mountains before mid-day. And there hadn't been much to Gee Ha'rah's puzzle -- Zelda commented that there was a lot of variation in the complexity from shrine to shrine, and he agreed with her. They'd speculated on what the Sheikah had been intending to teach, using the different lessons in the different shrines. He said he *had* noticed that he sometimes used different things he'd learned in the shrines when we was out and about and met some particular challenge. So they did have some use, in that way.

When they got to Shada Naw this morning, he remembered that the puzzle was similar to Rin Oyaa. So he took the opportunity to step back and let Zelda try it, without comment. She was proficient enough with the Sheikah slate, and remembered Rin Oyaa well enough, to get it right on the first try.

He tried not to give too many hints on the remaining shrines, nor to use the advantage of a second person to make some of the puzzles easier. She'd said at the outset that she wanted to experience the shrines as he had, and as the Sheikah had intended. He did provide force with heavy weapons when needed for the Stasis effect to solve a part of the puzzle, however. He also disabled any of the guardian Scouts they encountered; he watched Zelda carefully to see if she showed any signs of her earlier anxiety about fighting guardians, but she seemed not to mind him taking out the little ones. The Scouts in the puzzle shrines tended to be weak and easy to disable, so he guessed that it didn't remind her of the impossible odds they'd faced against the Stalkers during the war.

Zelda commented to him that she loved to use Magnesis; she showed a great deal of delight doing the puzzles in Rok Uwog and Sha Gehma. She said was difficult to get the hang of the way the metal objects moved when you turned the Sheikah slate one way or the other, but she liked the way they moved, just the same. She said it felt like they were on some sort of enormous stretchy band of some kind. Link thought to himself that she put words to experiences he'd found difficult to name. It was one of her skills.

Eventually, though, they started south across the snowfield towards the stable. As they walked, Link felt the inexorable pull of all their everyday responsibilities increasing. He looked over at Zelda frequently, worried that she would begin to feel the weight of rulership again. She did seem distracted by something, thinking hard, but... she didn't seem unhappy. He tried to take heart from that, and focused on his own feelings. He did have to admit that though he was not looking forward to having to go back to all the tasks he had waiting for him, especially taking and giving reports... so many words, so many conversations, and so easy to get the words slightly wrong in an important way... But the whole prospect of being back in the castle was much better when he thought that he'd be allowed to spend more time with Zelda as her Consort.

Suddenly Zelda exclaimed, "That's it!" Link looked at her in surprise. He waited for her to elaborate -- she always did, if he waited even a short while. She said, excitedly, "Maybe it was the puzzles in the shrines that helped me see it: just apply the same solution I already have!" Link was confused.

The words tumbled out of her mouth almost faster than she could articulate them: "You see, I already have a council of Hyrule, with representatives from all the different peoples of the country. But why not have a sub-council of Hylians, who can report to me and help me make decisions about the different Hylian communities? Who would know better than they do, what the problems are that need solving?"

She had stopped mid-stride and was gesturing broadly, facing him, eyes alight. "I had been trying to think of a way to find out what was going on, and could only think of sending you to speak with everyone, and... and I didn't want to have to do that..." she paused a moment, shyly; he imagined she was thinking the same thing he was, that she would be looking forward to many more nights like the last few, if he could stay in the castle with her... but then she regained her focus and continued, "And anyway, there would be no easy way to respond to what you told me without a great delay in sending you back to the villages to give my feedback and hear their reactions. If, instead, I had the leaders, or their representatives, all in a meeting or... or in several one-on-one meetings, at the Castle, then not only could they tell me what they need help with, but I could discuss it with them, right then! And if any arrangements needed to be made between the different communities, we could make those at the same time, too -- just as we do with the bigger Council!" She dropped her arms to her sides, clearly very satisfied with herself. She looked over at him.

"Oh, Link. Thank you for the vacation. It did give me the space to think clearly about what I need to do." He nodded, smiled, gave her a quick hug, and they started walking again.

As they neared the stable, Zelda said, "I think the very first thing I will do is to set down the rules for myself, and, I hope, future monarchs of Hyrule. About how the councils should work... that the single ruler can't be allowed to simply make laws without consulting with communities first... that a ruler can take a Consort of their choosing without abdicating their power... and maybe even that their offspring can only rule if..." she paused, looking thoughtful. "If they can show that they are fit to do so." Link realized she must be thinking that she might not have qualified, a hundred years ago. "I'll have to think carefully about that one. But... I feel that the people should have some right to have a say in who runs the country and how it is done. Maybe the Councils would have to approve?"

It was a radical idea. But Link thought that if anyone could think of a future for their country that was bright, and fair, and stable against disasters, it was Zelda. She'd seen enough, and had to deal with enough, and had plenty enough time to think about it all, that she had the right sort of perspective to come up with a good plan. She finished her thought: "I'll make this... this manifesto... a condition of my coronation." And with that, she seemed to be utterly satisfied, maybe even at peace -- as much as either of them ever could be. He nodded to her emphatically, and they went into the stable to get their horses and return home to the Castle. He gave one last wistful look to the mountains, feeling that even if things might go more smoothly in the future based on their new plans, they'd never be as free as they were now... but then, looking back at Zelda, speaking to the stable hands to retrieve their horses, he thought maybe it was worth it. He moved off to join her.

**Author's Note:**

> One thing that struck me as I played with the idea of Zelda and Link going on a kind of "shrine tour" is that the experience of playing the game is very solitary, almost a little lonely, as Link runs around this gorgeous and engrossing landscape. There are people to interact with, but Link is mostly alone. In the other games, to a lesser or greater extent, he has a companion to interact with (for better or worse, depending on the game). So this idea of bringing someone with him to navigate the shrines is really interesting.  
> Also, I figure Link wouldn't like having to give reports. He seems more like an action-oriented person. He'll do it for Zelda, of course, but it's not something he enjoys.  
> Written April 2-9, 2019


End file.
